Kenneth Branagh Mighteth Directeth Jack Ryan Redoeth

Or, in layman’s terms, Holy crap, Kenneth Branagh is now in talks to direct Paramount’s Jack Ryan franchise reboot (previously thought to be called “Moscow”, though the film has been in development for so long with so many writers taking a stab at it, who knows where it’ll be set when it finally gets made)!

Branagh’s involvement comes about after former “Lost”ee Jack Bender, who had been attached to direct the reboot for some time after Paramount parted ways with Sam Raimi, himself had to exit the project due to scheduling conflicts. With Bender off, the studio needed a new director, and it looks like Branagh is their man.

If he does sign on to direct, this would be Branagh’s second big-budget project, following in the footsteps of Marvel’s “Thor”, which Branagh shocked the world by directing. I mean, Kenneth Branagh is “the Shakespeare movie guy”, after all. First a comic book movie, now a globe-hopping action-adventure reboot? Either he really enjoyed his time on “Thor”, or the paycheck was just too good to past up. Maybe both. In interviews, Branagh did seem to appreciate having all the resources of “Thor” at his disposal.

Either way, I think we can all agree that with Branagh behind the camera, this Jack Ryan movie is NOT going to look or feel like any Jack Ryan movie we’ve seen before. Whether that’s good or bad, I guess we’ll find out when the film opens, which won’t be some time since Paramount still has to wait for star Chris Pine to wrap up their “Star Trek 2″ first.